For nearly a quarter century, Phil Pritchard has been one of the “keepers” of the Stanley Cup.

“I would love for me to win the Cup and someone bring it to me,” he joked during a recent chat with TheBruinsBlog.net. “That didn’t work out, so I’ll bring it to them.”

The Bruins’ Cup tour started not long after they beat Vancouver June 15. By the time the tour ends, the Cup will have visited five countries (U.S., Canada, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Finland) through early September. After the Bruins’ golf tournament, the Cup is scheduled to return to Toronto to get engraved. It then makes a late-September return to Boston so the players can check out their names on the world’s most famous sports trophy.

Pritchard has been on a number of the trips with Bruins players this summer, including Patrice Bergeron’s recent day in Quebec City. Wherever he’s gone, Pritchard’s been overwhelmed by the backers of the Black and Gold.

“What always amazes me is to see how many Bruins fans are really out there, he says. “It’s amazing, especially being in Canada, in Eastern Canada – particularly Quebec, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland – there’s a ton of Bruins fans up there because they can pick up the Bruins feed or they could pick up the local Boston station, so that became their team. Especially the older people that used to listen to the game on the radio, that became their team.”

JPT
The comments, by Recchi, were made to deflect attention from Chara. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. By the way, what was Pacioretty doing when he’s on twitter within 24 hours of the hit.

Since you Hab team has a penchant for signing undersized forwards,I guess JPT being on a Boston Bruin blog is as close as your ever going to get to the Cup. That is unless you attend Bergeron’s or Caron’s day with the Cup next year!

JPT: I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your input. Your posts are both entertaining and amusing. Surprisingly, I look forward to reading your comments. And, with Boston’s recent cup win, it only makes the victory that much sweeter each time I read your whining and complaining words. Your pro-Habs contributions to this forum are actually very much appreciated. Somehow, someway, each and every day you continue to raise the bar and set a new standard for fans of le bleu blanc et rouge.

Oh, and by the way – each time I read your posts, I can’t help but think of this article I read a while back. How true it is!

You must have sent the wrong link JP, the one I got shows Looch telling LaRock he is a goon not worth his time, then skating his shift. Was that when Milan had a broken finger too?

When is LaRock’s day with the Cup?

I assume you are 16 and don’t know much about hockey, but if you get a chance to come out of your mom’s basement, check some videos of the Habs back when they had class, it’s been a while but there may still be some VHS tapes of when Montreal had a team of actual hockey players and did not celebrate guys falling down to draw penalties. I’m sure those old Habs are ashamed of the current team and fanbase.

JPT,
Waaah! Waah! Waaaaaaah! Reality can be hard to accept sometimes no? just like the fact people in your province support the Bruins, who seek to win with a combination of skill, legal physical domination, and grit. Now I know the Canadiens rely on skill and speed, and there were really crappy reffing in the first round (it went both ways, and I still feel game 6 was a great win by the refs and would have been no matter who won) it still went both ways quite a bit with a fair amount of inequity in how the penalties were dolled out. That said, we beat you. Fair and square. If you don’t like NHL rules anymore, then watch the KHL or the OHL or something like that. You’ve been lamenting about how you’ve been wronged by the NHL, but the other people who have been is Vancouver, and look how much the rest of the NHL respects their fanbase right now! I went to game 6 in Tampa and the fans had no problems with the way the Bruins played, so I think it is really just your perception. Perhaps focusing on how your team could win would be a good start (Hint: taking on giant-ass contracts and signing Cole for $4mil/yr is not the way to do it.)

I never thought Lucic was that fast of a skater until I saw him skating for dear life away from Laroque. If you look closely, it is at around the :25 second mark that he shats his pants. Savard comes up to him and asks him if he needs any toilet paper.

I have to tell you Jean Philippe, your comments are pretty disturbing. Sure the Bruins played rough and physical and, yes the Habs did more than their share of embellishing , but PK “owns” Lucic? PK is a fine young talent who is fairly chippy in his own right (and that dive near the boards was actually pretty girly and downright embarrassing). Also, there is no reason for Milan Lucic to fight useless goon Big George, whose biggest talent is his ability to maintain his well cropped dreds, You Quebecois need to accept the fact that sometimes the Canadiens lose because they just aren’t good enough. Also, this Chara criminal investigation is just embarrassing you and your province.

JPT
Your reference to Recchi is classless and shameful. I will leave it at that. Lucic vs. George Larocque, I don’t remember. If you think P.K owns Lucic then you need to watch the games a little closer. You need to also understand that when you players try to embelish calls they often get fewer. Refs get tired of “princesses” who are trying to show them up.

B16,
It is more like hopefully Lucic doesn’t chase after PK and hit him from behind like he did in that incident you are refering to. Head on and clean battle, PK owns Lucic like he did to Marchant. It is common knowledge that Lucic believes strongly in the suckerpunch as he did to Moore and Myers. I still get a kick out of remembering Lucic skating as fast as he can away from George Larocque while he was shatting his pants.

Maybe the Bruins didn’t get called for many hi-stick by the refs but again, the refs were on their side. Where was the hi-sticking/spearing call on Kelly when he speared Hamrlik to the throat on his goal. THe playoffs were a joke this year.

I also wonder if Recchi got confused and thougth he worked at the Kamloops hospital since he seems to think he is a doctor. Recchi belongs in a mental institution.

Jean Phillipe Tremblay
You must have missed all the people, in Quebec City, there to congratulate Patrice Bergeron. The good news is when Caron makes the Bruins next year, there will be two Quebec stops of the Stanley Cup. Get out and enjoy!

Your reference to the Bruins being goons is laughable. I don’t recall any spearing penalties against the B’s, and only one or two high sticking penalties. Lucic should not have been kicked out in game 6, against the Habs. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are NOT charades in the romper room.

If anyone is embarassed its probably past Habs like Serge Savard, Guy Lapointe, Larry Robinson, and Yvon Lambert. When see some the faking, acting, and embelishing that some of the present Habs do, they must turn there televisions off in disgust. Hopefully, the next time the Bruins play the Habs P.K. Suppan doesn’t run behind Gill or the linesman when Lucic or Horton is chasing after him.

Bruins16,
Dream on. Most of the province of Quebec was not cheering for the Goons. The number of Bruins fans was decreasing as the playoffs went on because more and more people were getting to see how dirty they were and how much help they were getting from the officials and the league execs.

As for BC people being embaressed, the ones who should be embaressed are the Bruins fans who are obssessed with how Lucic needed to have a private party. Get over it already.

Karl
In every province, except BC, the number of Bruins fans increased as the playoffs went on. If you check out the roster you will find more than Eastern Canada is represented on the Bruins. Lucic’s hometown/province should be embarassed. Not only can they not recognize him properly, they still haven’t done the responsible judicial process with those punks.